Millennials Essay

Millennials in the Workforce Today

When discussing the topic of millennials or formally known as Generation Y, most will receive two different sides. Depending on who is asked, millennials range from 1980-2000 mostly making them made up of teens to 20’s. Millennials today are either looked at as the narcissistic generation, or they get classified as educated and skilled. While today’s world is mostly revolved around a technology or social based atmosphere, this gives managers a new way they need to cope with the new generation of upcoming employers. With always having technology in their lives this helps give the two sides of how millennials are viewed. On a positive and supporting standpoint, millennials being so technology driven helps businesses

Why do I say that? Millennials like to classify themselves as “young professionals” rather than the narcissistic generation some describe them as. They have a different attitude towards going to work compared to the Generation X. While for earlier generations going to work was a daily routine, for millennials it seems to be more of a way to fund their other daily activities they enjoy. Although this may seem like they aren’t the “young professionals” they entitle, it does gives us a perspective of how employers should manage our expectations. While Reisig gives us a few different methods of doing this, two stick out the most. Having a work-life balance and strong communication with employees. “The millennials mantra is “work hard, play harder.” Millennials desire a flexibility in their scheduling to allow time for their personal endeavors” (pg. 27, Reisig). For instance, believing that having a greater quality of work output can simply justify the time that should have been spent of the work itself. This shows managers to consider maybe it would be a good idea to let team members to set their own schedules. While stating how a work-life balance helps connect with millennials having a strong communication with them is also important. While being socially driven, millennials need to feel connected at all times. It would be important for employers to stay on a current level with communication

They don’t enjoy working alone as they would rather be working as teams or in groups to complete the task as they are always seeking for other opinions and guidance. While this is completely different for the generation previous to us, it gives us a broader understanding of what they prefer in the workforce. “As millennials work in teams and use more technology, they have a desire to be more creative… They like to work on new and tough problems, and ones that require creative solutions” (Gilbert). With constantly seeking challenges this brings us back to the communication aspect of how millennials understand topics. With millennials being a highly relationship based generation they require frequent and rather specific feedback. When working in teams, this can raise many questions between members. Therefore, they are always constantly interested in feedback from their superiors on his or her work that they have done. Given this, the feedback going towards them needs to be clear and specific for the information to be